Page 4 of Love Finds Home

“You’re thirty-one years old. No, you aren’t old. Because if you’re old, I’m old, and I’m still young and hip and stuff.” Chelsea continues to laugh.

“Whatever. I feel old. Like I want to yell ‘get off my lawn’ or something to some hooligans.”

“You are such a smartass,” she laughs again. “And now that I’ve let you bitch and whine, what the hell happened last weekend at the benefit?”

“Stefon happened.” I sigh.

“What? The guy you broke it off with before you left?”

“You mean the guy that caused me to leave?”

“Back up, lady. You said it ended, and you needed a break.”

“Yeah, about that…” I trail off.

“Spill it,” Chelsea demands.

“He got weird. Like, started showing up places I was when we weren’t supposed to see each other.”

“Okay. Places like where?”

“Like the grocery store. My doctor’s office. The restaurant I was at for family dinner. Outside the Workman offices once or twice when I’d come see you or Nolan.”

“That does seem…excessive.”

“And once I told him I didn’t think we should see each other, he started showing up at the studio. He said it was to see the new art show, but he came every day for over a week and would stand at the bottom of the stairs. He never looked at the art, Chels. Just stood where I would come out of my studio and wouldn’t say anything.”

“Creepy.”

“Exactly. But it wasn’t until I saw him outside my home that I really got creeped out. That’s when I decided I needed to get out. And then this weekend happened.”

“Yeah?” she questions, and I can see her rolling her hands in a get on with it motion. That she’s letting the stalker-ish behavior go tells me she’s reserving judgement—for now.

“He was at the benefit. As a cater-waiter.”

“Isn’t he supposed to be some big art buyer?”

“That’s what he told me the entire time we dated.”

“Maybe money is tight and he picked up a second job?”

“No. He told me. He dressed up as a server because I wouldn’t see him and he needed to see me. Said he had an artist I needed to include in the next show or things would go bad for me. He never told me who the artist was, Chels. He just stared at me with glassy eyes and a grip on my arm. Like he wasn’t really there.”

“What did you do?”

“I grabbed one of the security guys who was making the rounds and had him removed. You’d think that was the end of it, right? But it wasn’t.”

“What happened?”

“I stayed in town after Tiny and Lottie went back to Boulder Canyon so I could pack up some more things and set up a service for the apartment and talk to Jorge at the studio. I just needed to ensure that everything here would be taken care of so I could leave again.”

“Like the responsible adult you are.”

“Jorge said some couple had been coming in almost every day and making remarks about an up-and-coming local artist who should be on our walls. I asked what they looked like, and I swear, the man was Stefon with a wig.”

“Did they give the artist’s name?”

“Stefanie Deveraux.”

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